


Attention

by Applesandbannas747, thestarminstrel



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: Fence Secret Santa 2020, Illustrations, M/M, established Nichoji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29143473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesandbannas747/pseuds/Applesandbannas747, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestarminstrel/pseuds/thestarminstrel
Summary: Nothing interrupts peaceful summers quite like brothers and their annoying friends, a fact that Jesse has recently discovered. With no hope of returning his annoying little brother from whence he came, Jesse's plans largely include avoiding him and whatever imbeciles he invites over. Until one of those imbeciles catches his interest despite his best intentions. Eugene isn't at all the sort of boy Jesse's eyes are accustomed to landing on, but there's something about Eugene that keeps drawing them to him...And it's not long before Jesse finds himself craving Eugene's attention in return.Written byApplesandbannas747Illustrated bythestarminstrel
Relationships: Eugene Labao/Jesse Coste
Comments: 53
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_thousand_deaths](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_thousand_deaths/gifts).



> Happy holidays, Tris! It's a month late, but Nik and I had to duke out which one of us got to pinch-hit for you, which included several battles in Denny's parking lots at sundown and several more in Waffle House parking lots at 2 am. It was a long process, as I'm sure you can imagine. We ended up compromising <3 
> 
> Seriously, dude, you are a hero for pulling together a Secret Santa for this fandom last minute and with very little help. It was a bright way to bid 2020 adieu and a fun way to ring in the new year! We love you lots and lots and hope you enjoy your much-deserved gift 💜💛

Jesse glanced at the expansive window out onto the patio and curving path that cut through green grass, frowning at the noise he could hear drifting up the stone steps leading down to the pool. He couldn’t even see Nick or his stupid friend, but there was no escaping them. They were loud. And rowdy, from what Jesse had seen thus far. He finished mixing his drink, debating if he wanted to let them derail his plans for the day.

He’d been looking forward to a rest day, tanning in the sun by the pool, nothing but Shirley Temples and strawberries all afternoon. Even in his mind, the serenity of his daydreams was interrupted by loud, splashing imbeciles. Jesse had found that so much of his serenity was chased away now that he had a little brother. Why had no one told him they were such pains in the ass? He’d have insisted they get a gift receipt if he’d known. Exchange Nick and get something nice. Like a hamster. Hamsters couldn’t use water guns or eat all the good snacks when you weren’t paying attention.

 _No,_ Jesse decided, _I’m not going to let Nick and his dumb friend ruin my day._ He’d just kick them out of the pool if they started causing a ruckus. Nick was a shithead, but some of his friends were alright. The short one he’d had over last week at the start of summer vacation had been polite and properly willing to listen to Jesse. Maybe this one would understand the hierarchy of the house too.

Jesse pushed sunglasses up into his hair, collected his drink and his bowl of berries, and convinced the glass doors out onto the lawn to open without spilling a drop of Shirley Temple. Feeling pleased with himself as he kicked it back shut, Jesse made his way to familiar flat slabs of reddish fieldstone. The warmth of the stone pressing into toes and the soles of feet felt like summer to him. The fun he’d had over the years spent running up and down these steps—scampering down to the pool with childish excitement and scurrying back up them dripping wet to steal a snack from inside—was as good as worn into the very grain. Lost in other summers, Jesse forgot that _this_ one was plagued with oafs.

“Wha—!” Jesse gasped as a shoulder knocked into him out of nowhere.

“Whoops, sorry about that, bud,” an amiable voice replied, not at all apologetic enough. The boy it belonged to stood on the same step as Jesse. Shorter, with dark eyes and messy brown hair that looked black in the shadow of the sun and almost golden in its direct reflection. This must have been Nick’s friend. And with hardly even a glance to spare for Jesse, he made to keep walking.

Indignant, Jesse turned to tell him off, but his foot landed off the shelf of rock he stood on. Jesse let out a scream, feeling his balance tipping, body already bracing for impact—

“Careful!”

A hand closed around his arm and yanked him painfully from his descent. Jesse was still tipping out of balance, so the lopsided force of the yank only started to spin him. An arm caught around his waist and snapped his body back into forward motion. He landed with an _oof_ against a solid chest, fingers naturally curling into the shirt they landed splayed over.

“You okay?” the boy asked him. The words brushed past Jesse’s ear and he considered them. _Was_ he okay? Nothing seemed to be twisted, but—

“You just about ripped my arm from its socket,” Jesse scowled, rolling the shoulder in question.

“Sorry about that. Better than a cracked-open skull, though.”

Jesse didn’t appreciate dismissal and he let go of the boy so he could properly lay into him about how someone like Jesse ought to be treated—it was with a hell of a lot more care than he _had_ been, that was for sure. But as he unfurled his fingers from an obnoxious aloha shirt, he noticed something that ought to have been obvious to him at once.

“My strawberries!” Jesse pulled off the boy and looked in dismay at the berries cascading down the steps, bruised and dirty and ruined. “You made me drop them,” he accused.

“And you made my shirt all wet,” Nick’s friend replied.

“I did _not_ —My drink!” Jesse realized with further dismay. “Now look what you’ve done!”

“What _I’ve_ done?”

“Yes, what _you’ve_ done. You’ve wasted my berries and my Shirley Temple—!”

“Is that what you had?”

“You’re a neanderthal,” Jesse said, recognizing the mirth in the words and in the face that regarded him and his choice of drinks. “Nick, I like the shorter one better. This one just won’t do.”

“You want to trade me in for Bobby?”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“No, just about me. Jesus, Nick, is he always such a brat?”

“I am not a brat.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Do you see what I have to live with, Eugene?” Nick asked. Stupid Nick. Who asked him, anyway?

“Damn, I feel for you, man.”

“You’re both assholes,” Jesse snapped. “Now I’ve got to go all the way back inside for a new drink. _And_ those were the last of my strawberries.”

“Let me guess, I’m ruining your life?”

“You’re definitely ruining my day. I’m all sticky now,” he added, noticing the hand and the glass it held, both sticky with soda and grenadine.

“Me too,” Eugene agreed solemnly, reaching a hand behind his head and grabbing a handful of shirt there, drawing it over his head and off him completely. “But there’s an easy enough solution to that, so I won’t hold it against you.”

Jesse had felt it when he’d been—unwillingly—pulled in close against the guy, but Eugene was a tank. The loose Hawaiian shirt had hidden the sheer bulk of him, but in nothing but swim trunks, there wasn’t any hiding those muscles. Jesse was fit. Sculpted. Well-muscled. This boy was something else.

“You know,” Eugene said lightly, “there are better ways to get a guy to take off his shirt than all this fuss.”

“Excuse me?”

“It wasn’t necessary for you to risk your safety and sacrifice your drink just to check me out, but I’m flattered by the effort.”

“I _fell_. Because _you_ knocked into me. Besides, that’s not even the proper way to take off your shirt.”

“It’s not?”

“No. It’s got buttons for a reason.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there was a wrong way to take off my shirt. Should I put it back on so you can show me how to do it right? But that would make it a little harder for you to see all—,”

“Gross. I’m not checking you out,” Jesse sneered, flicking his eyes up to Eugene’s with an impassive expression, then back over his bared chest with distaste displayed obviously. “As _if_ I’d be tempted by such a blunt, graceless form. You look like a ham with all that bulk. It’s disgusting.”

With that, Jesse turned on his heel, head held high, and marched back inside without picking up any of his poor strawberries or the bowl he’d dropped. He discarded the glass he’d emptied down Eugene’s back into the sink, no longer in the mood for cocktails and tanning. Not when Nick and his friend were bound to be splashing around in the pool. Not when that friend smirked at him like he knew a secret about Jesse that Jesse didn’t even know.

* * *

By evening, and after a long soak in the bath to replace the relaxation of pool-side lounging, Jesse felt better. The warmth of his soak lingered on his skin as he pulled on pajamas and readied for bed. He was just folding back the covers when he looked up and noticed something out of place. Some _one_ out of place _._

Curiously, Jesse abandoned his bed, skirting around it to his balcony doors, which he pushed open to step into the summer evening that was still pleasantly heated from the already-set sun.

“What are you doing here?” Jesse asked.

Eugene turned his head toward Jesse, eyebrows raised in subdued surprise and lazy interest. His arms were folded over the railing of the balcony right next to Jesse’s and his shoulders were hunched casually, his posture leaning into the night, overlooking it.

“Nick invited me,” Eugene said simply, turning back to the view.

“Then why aren’t you with him?”

“And share a bed with him? I’d take a bullet for Nick, but he drools and has a boyfriend that might stab me if I accidentally snuggled him.”

“Does that happen often?”

“Nah, I usually snuggle my bros on purpose.”

“How unfortunate for them.”

Jesse could see Eugene’s small, silent laugh across the balconies, but he didn’t say anything more than that for a long while.

“You didn’t come back to the pool ever. Did I scare you off?” Eugene’s voice was as soft as the still air around them, like he didn’t want to break the quiet. It made Jesse hesitate before breaking it himself with a peevish retort about being above getting _scared off_ by stupid boys. “I didn’t mean to. Some of your strawberries were salvageable. I washed them and left them in the kitchen.”

“Why?”

“In case you wanted them. Seems like a waste to toss ‘em.”

“They were on the ground.”

“Uh-oh,” Eugene said with severity, worry overtaking his expression.

“What?” Jesse asked, a little sharp in his desire to know what had warranted the sudden somber tone.

“I hate to do this to you, but do you know where strawberries come from?”

As Eugene turned again to look at Jesse, his apparent worry evaporated from his face with crinkling eyes and pulled-up corners of mouth.

“It’s not the same,” Jesse huffed.

“Sure it is.” But Eugene shrugged. Jesse was apparently unable to hold his interest for long, his eyes slipping back again to the horizon and the stars. “I’ll just eat them tomorrow.”

“You should have done that in the first place.”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t want them first. You seemed pretty upset about dropping them.”

 _I’m not eating floor berries._ The words sat on the tip of Jesse’s tongue, but they didn’t spill out into the night.

“It’s whatever,” Jesse said with a sigh, looking out into the night in a mirror of Eugene. It was a pretty evening, some stars visible in the clear sky that seemed lit-up despite the sun’s absence. An orchestra of crickets serenaded them gently. It didn’t feel like a night for fighting. Not even with annoying, brutish, overly-jacked boys who’d jerked his arm and spilled his strawberries.

“How’s your shoulder?”

Jesse wondered how Eugene had known his thoughts, then realized he’d been unconsciously rubbing at his sore shoulder. It was a stupid question, anyway. Obviously, it hurt.

“Sorry if I hurt you,” Eugene said before Jesse could decide what he wanted to say. Jesse glanced his way, but Eugene wasn’t looking at him anymore, if he ever had been. Jesse dropped his hand from his arm, resting it on his railing instead, and let the offense go. For now.

There was a quality to the night that required peace, like the surface tension of a perfect, clear pond. Any raised voices or jagged words risked disrupting the water and breaking the quiet pleasure of watching it. So Jesse stayed quiet, leaned against his own balcony with the vague awareness that someone else stood on the adjacent one. Time slipped as the moment stretched and fuzzed at the edges. It could have been a long time or no time at all before he found himself actually climbing under the covers of his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the art featured in this chapter [here](https://thestarminstrel.tumblr.com/post/641970997897166848/id-a-digital-drawing-of-eugene-and-jesse-on-two)!


	2. Chapter 2

“Jesse, did you still want to watch the new Spider-Man? Robert’s got a connection that hooked him up with an early copy of it. But he says we can’t talk about it until it’s really out.”

“No duh,” Jesse said, pulling open his bedroom door. “This isn’t the first time one of Dad’s connections has pulled through. I know the drill. I’ll put the movie on in the theatre room,” Jesse said, remembering how Nick hated to set things up down there since he could never figure it out. And they were _not_ watching _Spider-Man_ on the living room TV. “You make the popcorn. And grab me a ginger ale!”

“Grab your own, the mini-fridge is literally right there in the theatre room.”

“But I want to restock the fridge if I take one out,” Jesse explained. He knew Nick wouldn’t grab him a spare soda, though, so he stopped by the garage for one himself.

“Can you get a root beer too?” Nick called. “We’re all out downstairs.”

“No,” Jesse shouted back. He really should make Nick get his own. But he grabbed one from the shelf before heading downstairs. He was in a generous mood.

He heard Nick’s _Thanks!_ as he pattered down the stairs. But he froze as he came into the dark room.

“Oh. _You’re_ here.”

Eugene looked over his shoulder, twisting in his seat. He nodded his head at Jesse, like _‘sup?_

Jesse frowned.

“Is that my root beer?” Eugene asked, pointing. “Thanks for grabbing that for me.”

“No,” Jesse said, crossing to the mini-fridge and placing both sodas in it, pulling a cold ginger ale out in exchange. “And you’re in my seat.”

“There’s a billion places to sit in here.”

“Yes, but that seat is where _I_ sit.” Jesse came to stand in front of Eugene, in _his_ seat, arms crossed and fingers tapping imperiously against soda can.

“You just gonna stand there and glare at me? Isn’t there anything you want to say?”

“That’s my spot. Get out.”

“There’s still room here,” Eugene said. “It’s made for two people.”

“Fine,” Jesse agreed, dropping his drink into the cup holder on the right arm of the individually reclining loveseat without sitting down. “But I really need the entire thing and if you get in the way of my comfort…well, that’s your problem.”

“Sure,” Eugene answered, eyeing the drink Jesse had just placed to mark his spot. “I can’t believe you really put my soda in the fridge when you were coming this way anyway.”

“And I can't believe Nick invited you over,” Jesse told Eugene as he left him for the machinery and movie cases across the room. ‘This isn’t a movie theatre.”

“Could have fooled me. And the only reason _you_ were invited to join us is because Nick doesn’t know how the fuck to operate this place.”

“Traitor,” Jesse muttered under his breath as he set up.

When he was finished, he found Eugene—now with a root beer in hand—still sitting in his spot. Probably just to piss Jesse off.

Well, Jesse wouldn’t back down. He did exactly as promised and made himself at home on the mini couch, twisting sideways and pulling his feet up on the cushions. And then he pushed them up against Eugene’s thigh because he was in the way. Eugene raised an eyebrow down at Jesse’s bare feet and pedicured toes that pressed into his jeans.

“If you asked nicely,” he said, “I might give you your spot.”

“I won’t be taught manners by an oaf.”

“I’m an oaf, am I?”

“You rammed into me _and_ tried to dislocate my shoulder the last time we met.”

“And I said sorry for both things. Anyway, it’s a sad state of affairs when a prince needs to be taught manners by an oaf.”

Jesse kicked a foot against Eugene’s leg.

“I do _not._ A prince should be obeyed without having to spell out niceties.”

Eugene snorted.

“Modest, aren’t you, Prince Jesse?”

“You’re the one who called me that first,” Jesse protested, kicking again. It was no use, Eugene only seemed to find the barrage of kicks funny. The way he looked up at Jesse with a raised eyebrow and quirked lips heated up Jesse’s face with alarming speed.

“So is it that you’re only tame during the night?”

“I am not!” Jesse contradicted, flushing fully red as his eyes flew open wide with scandal. “And it’s none of your business what I’m like in bed, you should be ashamed of yourself bringing something like that up.”

“I didn’t,” Eugene said. Jesse only realized that Eugene had looked taken aback as wide amusement pushed all that surprise from his face.”I only meant you were calm last time we talked. But you’re not tame in bed, huh? Glad we cleared that up.”

Jesse flushed deeper.

“Shut up,” he snapped, crossing his arms and twisting his body toward the TV, looking stubbornly straight ahead and focusing on the menu on the screen. There was no defense or witty response that could save him from his own blunder, so he scowled silently to avoid saying something else stupid. Eugene laughed uproariously.

“Sounds like you two are having fun,” Nick said, voice coming nearer behind them as he returned with popcorn. _And_ Seiji. Jesse wasn’t really surprised to see him as Seiji rounded the row of seats and found one to settle on with a bowl of popcorn that he put down rather distastefully. Eugene took the other one from Nick when he offered it.“What’d Jesse do?”

“He’s a riot, man,” Eugene reported with a grin. “You never told me your brother was so funny.”

“My brother,” Nick said with strange emphasis as he gave Eugene something of a warning look, “is fun to laugh at. There’s a difference between that and funny.”

Lightning fast, Jesse kicked out a leg, sweeping Nick’s right out from under him as he walked by. Nick flailed hilariously but was unable to save himself. He face-planted right into Seiji’s lap, his elbow landing in his popcorn and knocking it over.

“Nicholas!” Seiji gasped, shoving Nick off of him with no sympathy and slightly pinked cheeks. “Be more careful. You’ve made a mess.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Nick complained, gathering the popcorn back up in the bowl. Seiji looked horrified as Nick proceeded to pop a piece into his mouth.

Watching them, Eugene chuckled.

“See, Nick?” Jesse asked. “I’m plenty funny.”

Eugene’s chuckle turned to a laugh, which satisfied Jesse further, even as Nick lobbed a bit of popcorn at him. Eugene took retribution on his behalf, flicking a piece from their bowl over Jesse’s head. It hit Nick between the eyes.

“Must you two turn everything into a food fight?” Seiji asked. Disgustingly, Nick turned at once to press a kiss to Seiji’s cheek. They were insufferable.

“Eugene, get the lights,” Jesse directed. “I’m going to start the movie.”

“Get the lights…?” Eugene asked. Jesse glanced back to his brother, who was now thoroughly distracted with Seiji. There would be no convincing either of the love birds to do his bidding.

“Please?” Jesse gave in grudgingly. Eugene pushed the popcorn into his arms. 

As soon as Eugene stood, Jesse let his legs push out over the entire couch, settling in and getting comfortable as the room dimmed to full, movie theatre black. When Eugene came back, he picked up Jesse’s legs without a second thought and slid under them, dropping them back over his lap.

Jesse scrunched his brow at Eugene. Why was he so insistent on sitting here? Anyone else definitely would have taken the hint and moved somewhere else. But if Eugene was going to play it this way, Jesse could too. He left his legs on Eugene’s lap and pressed play on the movie.

Somehow, as the movie progressed, he must have adjusted to sit more upright, shifting to face the screen with his whole body; when the credits rolled, Jesse noticed that one leg had stayed crossed over Eugene’s, the other one folding under him. Eugene’s hand was heavy on his thigh.

Jesse yanked away from Eugene. A little too enthusiastically—he all but tumbled off the couch. Playing it off as intentional, Jesse got to his feet and made a show of stretching to cover standing for no reason.

“Good movie,” Eugene said. “Thanks for having me over to watch it.”

“Remember, no talking about it until July,” Jesse replied automatically, then realized the thanks, obviously, was meant for Nick, and Jesse shouldn’t have been the one responding to it.

“Got any other Marvel movies while we’re here?” Eugene asked. “We could do a marathon.”

“Yeah!” Nick agreed. “Jesse?”

“You’re really going to have to learn how to work the TV eventually,” Jesse said tiredly. But he sat back down and navigated to their digital library. He kept his legs tucked up next to him as they picked a new movie to watch, content enough to stay as comic pages _fwipp_ ed across the screen.

But apparently, Eugene had meant it when he’d said _marathon._ Two movies turned to three, and then to four. By the fifth, Jesse started to suspect it was getting late. Mom had come down with an offering of pizza a movie ago and Jesse was full and comfortable and tired…

* * *

“…leave him here?”

“He’s a big boy, Eugene. He’ll be fine waking up here in a couple hours and can move to bed then.”

“Just wake him up now if you’re so concerned.”

“I don’t know, I hate waking people up after movie dozing. They always look so peaceful.”

“Well, unless you feel like carrying him up two flights of stairs, you can either wake him or leave him. But I’m going to head to bed now. Nicholas?”

“Yeah, I’m coming. Eugene, you good?”

“Yeah, I know the way.”

“Cool. Night, then.”

“Night.”

Hazy conversation floated around Jesse like clouds. He couldn’t quite make sense of anything and he found that he didn’t really want to. It was dark and quiet and warm and he was so comfortable. Burrowing deeper into the couch, Jesse sighed a sleepy sound and tightened his fingers into soft sheets.

But why were there sheets on the couch? And why was the armrest so warm? And why was it all _moving?_

Jesse jerked awake with a yelp and a shove.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded of Eugene, who was looking at him like he was crazy.

“Damn, I was just trying to get you to bed, you weirdo. Stop clutching your pearls like you think I was trying to pull something on you.”

Jesse took stock of the situation, finding that he’d landed in the very corner of the couch opposite to Eugene, legs pulled in tight against him and hand curled to his breastbone. Embarrassed, he unfurled.

 _“You’re_ the one who snuggled up against me,” Eugene continued.

Jesse launched to his feet to tower imperiously over Eugene.

“I was _asleep_ , I can’t help it if I fell over. But _you_ could have helped it.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. You took advantage of—,”

“Took advantage? By letting you sleep? Most people would think it was decent of me to let you drool on my shoulder.”

Jesse gasped, a hand flying to his lips.

“I don’t drool.” Did he? His mouth seemed clean. Eugene laughed.

“You’re related to Nick. For all I knew, I was in for a trip to slobber town and I _still_ let you sleep on my shoulder when you cozied up to me.”

“It was an accident! Don’t make it sound like I wanted to—like I meant to—like I have any interest in cozying up to someone like you. And you’re the one who wanted to sit by me so bad, so, really, I think _you’re_ the one that—!”

“Someone like me?” Eugene interrupted, getting to his feet. Not angry, but serious. Jesse looked away from his stern eyes.

“I told you, you’re not my type. I don’t like short guys, and you’re built like—,”

“A ham, I remember,” Eugene finished.

“Stop interrupting me!”

“Right,” Eugene said flatly. “Well, good night.”

Eugene turned with a wave over his shoulder and climbed up the stairs, visible through the open door to the theatre room. Jesse almost stomped his foot as he watched Eugene disappear up them, leaving him feeling frustrated down here alone in the dark.

There was no reason for him to stay put, so Jesse followed the others up to bed, finding the house empty every step of the way.

The balcony next to Jesse’s was deserted. Not that he’d looked. He’d only seen it the same as he did every night while he pulled back his covers, that was all.

As he fell into the mattress and pulled his comforter tight around him, Jesse thought he remembered a soft warmth pressed all along his side and a comforting rhythm under his fingers. He remembered, too, the sensation of being collected into arms that really _were_ impressively large. He wondered if Eugene really would have done it. Carried him up two flights of stairs and tucked him in bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the art featured in this chapter [here](https://thestarminstrel.tumblr.com/post/642152216314150912/id-a-digital-drawing-of-eugene-and-jesse-sitting)!


	3. Chapter 3

“I haven’t seen that friend of yours in a while,” Jesse said casually over breakfast. Nick looked up from his pancakes, syrup dribbling down his chin, and cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s. How he’d managed to get a boy like _Seiji Katayama_ to fall for him, Jesse still wasn’t sure.

“I guess it’s been a bit since we hung out here,” Nick said slowly, swallowing down his food. “Why are you asking about Eugene?”

“I wasn’t.”

“So you’re asking about Bobby, then?”

“Funny. I wasn’t _asking_ about Eugene. I was just saying. Isn’t he, like, your best friend? But he hasn’t been over since the movie night. It’s strange, that’s all.”

“We chill a lot at his place, his family’s really nice.”

“Does he…” _not want to come over here?_ “Invite you over a lot?”

“‘Course he does. But he’s coming over later today, actually. To watch the new _Fast and Furious_ movie with me since you won’t and Seiji says I owe him a break from dumb movies after the marathon.”

“You could just watch movies alone, you know.”

“But it’s not as fun!”

“Only because you like to talk people’s ears off during them.”

Jesse waved off Nick’s protests about making the movie experience ‘more entertaining’ with commentary as he cleared his plate. Finished eating, Jesse went to get dressed and ready for the day.

It was a fine day, he decided, the sun bright and cheerful out his balcony doors and deserving of a smart ensemble to face it in. Jesse picked out his favorite pair of pants—they fit him spectacularly—and brushed fingers over rows of shirts hung neatly in his closet. They caught on one of his favorite button-downs. A pretty shell pink color with a butterfly logo stitched in subtle white over the breast. He took it off its hook and slipped it on, buttoning it up as he wandered to his full-length mirror to examine the effect.

He paused, midway through doing up the third button from the top. With a small push of fingers, he undid the progress and left that one open too. It made a modest but aesthetic opening, showing just a sliver of casual skin. The casual buttons demanded rolled-up sleeves to match, so Jesse folded them up over his elbows. Yes, that looked good. And his hair was rather handsome today, wasn’t it? Trying a pose with a hand in his pocket and an unconcerned slip of eyes toward the glass, Jesse decided that he liked what the mirror saw.

Satisfied that he looked appropriately dashing, Jesse took a book to the upstairs drawing room, perusing through it until he was interrupted by a knock at the door and Nick’s call of _One second!_

That would be Eugene. Jesse frowned down at his book, considering. It would be rude not to greet a guest. He couldn’t let Eugene think he was lacking in manners…

Jesse stood, book in hand, and floated down one dramatically curving branch of the grand staircase to the entry hall right as Nick opened the door and greeted Eugene. Eugene didn’t look over at him. Jesse smoothed out the annoyance on his face—it wouldn’t do to let wrinkles get written into his brow, least of all over rude boys. But if Eugene wasn’t going to take any notice of him, Jesse didn’t see any reason to offer him a warm greeting either.

“Oh,” he said as he reached the bottom of the stairs, “good morning.” As if he’d only just realized Eugene was here.

“Jesse,” Eugene returned with a nod. “You joining us for the movie?”

“No,” Nick answered for him. “Jesse, what’re you doing down here?”

Jesse held up his book. “The lighting upstairs was lacking.”

“You can have the living room. Eugene and I are using the theatre room.”

“And I suppose you’ll need me to set it up for you,” Jesse sighed.

“I can fuck around with it today,” Nick said, but Jesse waved him off again.

“I’m already up, I may as well help you now. I know you’ll be asking in forty minutes anyway when you can’t figure out how to turn on the TV.”

Very graciously, Jesse led the charge downstairs and got the movie ready to play. Nick and Eugene were loitering by the seats when Jesse came to hand off the remote. He hesitated before handing it to Nick’s expectant hand.

“Since I’m here already,” Jesse decided slowly, “I might as well give the movie a try.”

“You hate action movies,” Nick said bluntly. Jesse didn’t appreciate the judgment clear on his face.

“No, I don’t. I like _good_ action movies. It’s not my fault most action movies are bad.”

“Name one action movie you like.”

“Nick,” Eugene said, clasping a hand on his shoulder, “Jesse watched about ten action movies in a row with us two weeks ago.”

“Those don’t count,” Nick protested.

“Sure they do,” Eugene said with a wink for Jesse.

“Gene, he threw a fit when I asked him to watch this one with me.”

“That,” Eugene laughed, “I believe.” To Jesse, he said, “You can tantrum better than anyone I know, and my little brothers are a helluva lot younger than you.”

Jesse’s kind feelings towards Eugene for the rescue evaporated.

“I’m starting to think that you’re only friends with _my_ little brother to get access to pre-release movie screenings.”

“You wound me,” Eugene said, hand squeezing on Nick’s shoulder and pulling him into Eugene’s side in some sort of almost-half-hug. “Nick’s been my bud for way longer than he’s had connections to sweet hookups, and would be my bud no matter what.”

“Aw, thanks, man.”

“I thought you said Seiji would stab you if he caught wind of you snuggling his boyfriend,” Jesse said, eyes narrowing at the pair of them.

“When did he say that?” Nick asked, as Eugene asked:

“How’s he gonna catch wind?”

“Seiji wouldn’t stab Eugene,” Nick said, ducking away from Eugene’s incoming noogie. “Not with a real knife. Probably. Fine, Jesse, you can watch the movie.”

“I don’t need your permission to watch movies in my own house, Nicholas,” Jesse said irritably.

“But it’s decent of me to let you hang around my friends,” Nick countered. Jesse lobbed the controller at him.

“Gentlemen, please,” Eugene said, hands out magnanimously, “there’s plenty of me to go around.”

With an exaggeratedly charming smile—the sort that toed the line into shit-eating grin—Eugene brought his arms up for an equally exaggerated flex to drive home the joke. And—oh god, those arms made Jesse understand why guys called their biceps _guns._ Those things looked like they needed a permit to carry. Jesse swallowed hard and looked away, searching for something—anything—to land his eyes on that wasn’t brown skin and tight muscle or olive green fabric of a tank top that suddenly seemed horribly immodest.

“I’m going to get refill sodas for the fridge,” Jesse declared.

“Thirsty?” Eugene asked behind him, and Jesse heard Nick mutter something at Eugene that resulted in a laugh.

“One of you knuckleheads go get some snacks,” Jesse said, pausing at the heavy soundproofed door. “I want pretzels.”

It turned out that Eugene was the one to answer Jesse’s call for snacks because he was missing when Jesse returned with the drinks. As the minutes ticked on, Jesse began to doubt that Eugene knew where to acquire snacks.

“Do you think he got lost? It’s been forever,” Jesse complained. What was the point of having a home theatre and a dad with connections if you _still_ had to wait for the movies to start?

“Why don’t you go check on him if you’re so worried?” Nick asked without looking up from his phone.

“Why don’t _you_ tell your boyfriend he should have just come over today if he’s going to text you so much. You’d better not be on your phone during the movie.”

“Hey, where’re you going?” Nick asked, finally looking up as Jesse stood.

“To see about my pretzels,” Jesse said. He hated to make so many trips up and down from the theatre room. Nick really should have just gotten the snacks in the first place.

“Hey, you got a stepladder?” Eugene asked as Jesse pushed in the pantry door.

“A stepladder?” Jesse asked, door swinging shut again behind him. Their snack pantry really was quite cramped with multiple people in here. Eugene looked over at him and Jesse could tell he’d expected Nick. “You’ve been in here ages and I want my pretzels. Why do you need a stepladder?”

Eugene pointed up at a box on the top shelf.

“I figure it’s bad form to climb around in other people’s homes. So? You got one or not?”

“Of course I haven’t got a stepladder. Some people have reasonably sized legs.”

“Yeah, and none of those people live in this house,” Eugene said, then turned back to the shelf, hands on hips, chin tilted up and lips tilted down as he considered his dilemma. Jesse waited, just to see if Eugene would reach for the box—it would be funny, he reasoned. And then, when Eugene fell short, Jesse would graciously step in and get him the box of chips he was after.

Eugene didn’t attempt to retrieve the box. As Jesse watched, Eugene’s shoulders shrugged, eyebrows raising very briefly before settling back down in good-spirited defeat. Everything about him said _well, what can you do?_

“Here,” Jesse said, reaching for the very box he’d been hoping Eugene would try and fail to obtain. It was a bit of a stretch, even for him, but it wasn’t hard to tease it out of place and bring it down. When he moved to give it to Eugene, he noticed that the other boy hadn’t been watching the display of his impressive height at all.

Eugene’s eyes were fixed on Jesse’s midriff, considering it almost as he had the box, high up on the shelf and out of reach. Jesse tugged at the hem of his shirt, but it was perfectly in place. _Now._ It must not have been when he’d stretched for the chips. For Eugene’s interest to be that keen, something must have shown; the shirt pulling out of place and revealing…revealing something that, apparently, Eugene had liked the look of.

Jesse felt a tingling sensation pooling in his stomach, as if heated by Eugene’s gaze there. It spread up to his chest and settled strangely beneath his ribs. Eugene was looking at him. Noticing him. Liking him, possibly. The warmth expanded horribly from his chest up his neck, overtaking his face in a full flush the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

“Here,” Jesse said again, shoving the box at Eugene. He took it, gaze finally breaking from Jesse’s stomach and taking note of his red face, which Jesse _knew_ clashed horribly with his shirt.

“Thanks,” Eugene returned slowly, not looking away from Jesse. “Unreasonably long legs _do_ have their moments, I’ll admit it.” With What Jesse swore was effort, Eugene turned away from him. But he paused with his hand on the swinging door. “You should wear that color more. You look cute in pink.”

Jesse couldn’t formulate a response before Eugene was gone. He just stared blankly at the door as it swung open and shut, a hand drifting to his cheek. He could feel the heat there, but he now wondered what color the heat displayed across his face. The way Eugene had looked at him, the way he’d said that…it made Jesse think his shirt wasn’t the only thing Eugene was talking about. Or the only one he’d noticed.

And Eugene _was_ noticing him. That much was obvious now. As was the truth Jesse faced with it. He _liked_ it. _Wanted_ Eugene to notice him. To like him, even…

“Jesse, what’s the holdup?” Nick asked, pushing into the pantry with impatience on his tongue. “I want to start the—Oh. What’d he do?”

“What?” Jesse asked, struck by the question. What’d _he_ do. Usually, Jesse was the one getting accused of doing something. That had to mean Nick thought Eugene was likely to pull something on him, didn’t it? “What would he have done?”

Nick squinted at Jesse.

“Nothing. It gets crowded in here with two people, huh? Kinda stuffy and hot.” Jesse couldn’t tell if Nick was dismissing his blush or trying to make fun of him for it. “Did you get your pretzels? Let’s go.”

“Oh, right,” Jesse said, grabbing the bag of pretzels and following Nick down to the theatre.

“Eugene, stop torturing Jesse and come sit next to me,” Nick commented as he walked past Eugene to sit in his usual spot. Eugene was in Jesse’s again. “Seiji’s not here today, there’s room for you here.”

“It’s fine,” Jesse brushed off Nick’s suggestion as he sat down next to Eugene, carefully sitting with feet on the floor and kept to his own space. “You don’t have to move. I don’t mind.”

Eugene and Nick gave him matching raised eyebrows. He ignored both and started the movie.

Nick was right. Jesse hated action movies. They were boring and lacking in logic. There was no plot, and muscles really weren’t enough to make up for the mind-numbing dullness. That thought just made his attention try to gravitate toward Eugene. _He_ wore his bulk much better than the action men. Jesse would rather just look at him.

 _Stop it,_ he scolded, unimpressed with himself for drooling over a boy just because he had good arms and a nice smile. Had he really gone and developed a crush on one of Nick’s little friends? How humiliating.

A crush.

And Jesse was sitting right next to him.

All at once, it was impossible to get comfortable. Jesse could feel Eugene beside him and it made him antsy. Was Eugene looking at him? No, why would he be watching Jesse when there was a movie on? But if he _was,_ Jesse had to make sure he looked good. Cool. Casual. Unconcerned. He shifted, trying to find the perfect position. Why was it so hard to find a comfortable way to sit? He tried uncrossing his legs again, but that wasn’t any better than before—

Jesse’s legs were being tugged up onto the couch, landing over Eugene’s lap and twisting his body as a result before Jesse could try to resituate them again. Wide-eyed, Jesse took in Eugene’s hands resting on his calves and followed them along his arm and over his shoulder and up his neck to his face.

“There,” Eugene said softly, “now stop fidgeting so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the art featured in this chapter [here](https://thestarminstrel.tumblr.com/post/642333491132006400/art-for-chapter-3-of-attention-couldnt-resist)!


	4. Chapter 4

Eugene had started to come over more. Jesse didn’t read too much into it. He was Nick’s friend; it made sense he’d come over a lot. But they _could_ have continued to hang out more at Eugene’s, or go out to town more often. _And_ Eugene always said hi to him lately when he came over if Jesse happened to be in a common area when he arrived. And if Jesse lingered for a round or two of whatever asinine video game they were playing, or a movie, or a trip down to the pool for a spot of sunbathing…Well, it was his house too. And Eugene always smiled at him, even if Nick pulled faces at him when he stuck around for a bit.

“We’re going down to the pool, wanna join?” Eugene asked Jesse today as he breezed through the kitchen for a light morning snack. Jesse was pleased with the greeting.

“I could do with some sun,” Jesse agreed.

“Bet that hair looks good with a tan. Just don’t let your skin burn.”

Jesse _did_ look great with a tan, and he also knew better than to let his skin burn. But he smiled at Eugene, pausing just next to him on his way back around the kitchen island.

“Can you help me with that?” he wondered. “I can’t reach everywhere.”

After ascertaining an agreement from Eugene, Jesse returned to his room to change into appropriately flattering swimwear. He chose a set of trunks and rash guard that showed off his figure but would keep Eugene’s interest appropriately sharp with imagination and—with any luck—want. The black ensemble with splashes of patterned color over both the slim-cut shorts and form-fitting top looked as elegant on him now as it had when he’d bought it.

“I thought you wanted sun,” Eugene called when Jesse came down the steps to the pool.

Nick was already splashing about in the deep end and Seiji was sitting with legs dangling into it, fully in danger of getting splashed. Eugene was still dry on land, but entirely ready to get in the water. Jesse had to consciously keep his eyes from immediately slipping down Eugene’s body. This was even worse than the first time Jesse had seen him shirtless and the day he’d worn a tank top combined.

“And I thought you told me not to burn my pretty skin.”

“Did I say that? I don’t remember saying anything about it being _pretty.”_

“That part was implied. Can you get my neck?” Jesse asked, nodding at the bottle of sunscreen Eugene held before turning around, trusting that Eugene would do as requested.

He was right.

Eugene’s hands rubbed over the back of Jesse’s neck carefully, dipping under the mock turtleneck collar of his rash guard and over to either side of his neck, up to his ears. It was hard to stave off the shivers, especially when Eugene seemed to linger in each sensitive spot, massaging the sunscreen into him.

“You got the rest?” Eugene asked.

Nodding, Jesse turned to pick up the bottle Eugene had set on a patio table, pulling at his rash guard to get fingers underneath it. He noticed that Eugene watched him all the while. He also noticed that Eugene didn’t stop watching him when he picked up a leg to prop on a chair, rubbing sunscreen into it with care. Jesse made sure to be on the safe side, pushing his trunks higher up each thigh in turn to get to the skin underneath. Just in case the hem shifted around.

“Do you want me to help you keep _your_ pretty skin safe?” Jesse offered when he was finished, waving the bottle subtly in one hand. “Or is there something else you needed?”

Eugene gave Jesse a devilish grin, then did as Jesse had and turned.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” he said.

Jesse wouldn’t.

Eugene’s back was wide, with muscles pronounced enough to be followed along easily by touch, but not monstrously overstated. And his skin was as warm as it always looked, though the sun he’d been standing in may have had something to do with that. Jesse watched, almost entranced, as his hands skimmed over Eugene’s back, looking rather smaller and paler than he ever thought of them as. As he worked the sunscreen into Eugene’s skin, ideas of when else he might drag fingers down Eugene’s back flitted through his mind. Jesse chased _those_ thoughts away before his cheeks could betray him, but it was impossible not to consider how sturdy and great for clutching this back was, how strong and great for holding those arms were…

Jesse realized his hands had strayed down shoulders and paused too long at Eugene’s arms. He dropped them and stepped back.

“You look good,” Jesse said. Eugene turned around with a little smirk and Jesse cursed his tongue, quickly clarifying, “I mean—you _are_ good. On the sunscreen. You should be good. For the afternoon, at least, but it says you should reapply it every three to six hours—,”

“Are you a nervous rambler?” Eugene asked with an undue level of delight at Jesse’s stumbling words. “Who knew you could be so—?”

“Are you guys coming in or what?” Nick called impatiently from the pool, splashing a wave at them that hit Seiji more than anyone else. Seiji kicked a leg ferociously at his boyfriend. Nick dodged out of the way and only got sprayed with some of the displaced water, but Jesse knew Seiji had meant the kick to land.

“Cannonball!” Eugene roared, suddenly running at the water and launching himself into the deep end.

Nick howled with laughter as Eugene plummeted into the pool, and Seiji held up arms uselessly against the massive wave. Jesse got plenty soaked even at his safe distance from the pool; there really had never been any hope for Seiji.

Already speckled in water, Jesse came to the pool’s edge and slipped into it.

“We’ve actually got enough people for a chicken fight,” Nick said. Then, with a mistrustful glance at Eugene, he quickly amended, “Or Marco Polo.”

“Or,” Eugene cut in, “don’t drown the baby.”

“That _is_ a fun one,” Nick admitted.

Still perched on the lip of cement, Seiji grimaced, which meant whatever game Eugene wanted to play was either something really fun or really dreadful.

“Don’t drown the baby?” Jesse repeated, sure he’d misheard. “What?”

“We played it at the pool at school before summer break,” Nick explained.

“How enlightening,” Jesse sneered, then turned to Eugene for a better explanation.

“It’s like this: someone is the baby. And it’s everyone else’s job to not let the baby drown.”

Jesse still wasn’t sure he understood.

“For example,” Eugene said, wading over to the edge, “Seiji’s the baby—,”

“Eugene, no.”

“—which means we just gotta…” Eugene grabbed one of Seiji’s arms and yanked him into the pool.

“I think a child would drown if you did that to it,” Jesse said, watching Seiji erupt from the water with hair plastered over his face.

“So now, you just…” Eugene waved off Jesse’s skepticism, bobbing briefly under the water and returning with Seiji’s legs over one arm, the other catching under his back and dipping him backward.

“Like a baby,” Jesse observed.

“Now you’re getting it! Basically, you pass the baby around and try not to let them go under.”

Jesse understood Seiji’s grimace now. Arms crossed, he looked resigned to his fate. Jesse had to wonder what it had taken to get him to this point of resignation the first time his friends had bullied him into the game.

“So you just…toss him around?”

“Yup. Like so. Hey, Nick, want your boyfriend?”

Eugene threw Seiji before checking to see if Nick was ready. Jesse wasn’t convinced the point of the game was to _not_ drown the baby, the way Eugene laughed as he lobbed Seiji at Nick. Nick caught him, and Seiji’s arms broke free of their hold to fling reflexively around Nick’s shoulders. Nick grinned so dopily at him, it was embarrassing.

“Pro tip,” Eugene said as an aside to Jesse, “don’t give Seiji to Nick. He never wants to give him up again after.”

“Has he purposely tried to drown Seiji yet as an excuse to give him mouth to mouth?”

“Don’t give him any ideas.”

Nick didn’t try drowning Seiji for romantic resuscitation, but Eugene was right, he really was reluctant to give Seiji up. They drifted around the moderately deep end of the pool—shallow enough to stand but deep enough for Seiji to be more in the water than not—and talked, Seiji tucked securely up against Nick the entire time. Seiji endured it surprisingly well. They really were sickeningly infatuated, clinging onto each other like that.

Every now and again, Nick poised as if to pass Seiji off, but he never followed through. When it finally wasn’t a feint and Nick actually did let go of Seiji, Seiji didn’t let go of him. The resulting mess of momentum sent them both burbling into the water.

“Fun, right?” Eugene asked, nudging an elbow into Jesse’s ribs as they laughed at the explosion of limbs resurfacing. “I think Seiji likes to sink them on purpose to end his turn. Yo, Nick, you drowned the baby, so you’re up.”

“The baby drowned me! And that’s not how the turns pass.”

“There is no pattern to the way turns pass that I can ever discern,” Seiji put in. “It’s all chaos.”

“Anarchy!” Eugene declared, snagging Nick in a similar manner to how he’d grabbed Seiji earlier. Nick crossed his arms too, but it wasn’t grumpiness that drove him to do so.

“I’m ready,” Nick said, poised like a man prepared to be shot from a cannon. “Just don’t fucking drop me again.”

“I only dropped you once,” Eugene grinned. “And it was for a good cause.”

“Jackass—!” Nick didn’t get the chance to finish.

Jesse screamed when Nick came hurtling at him, but he managed to keep Nick’s head from going underwater. All the way.

“You didn’t give me any warning!” Jesse accused.

“Don’t have to,” Eugene shrugged.

“If you were really trying not to drown the baby, I think you’d be more communicative about passing—,”

“Uh, Jesse?” Nick asked. Jesse looked down at him.

“Oh. Oops.” Jesse had accidentally started to let Nick sink. He corrected the mistake. “You could be more helpful,” he told Nick. “Instead of just holding to yourself.”

“I’m a baby!”

“Babies have arms!”

“You’re right,” Nick said, unfurling a hand and reaching up to yank painfully on Jesse’s hair.

“Ow!”

“Babies have hands too, and you should fear them.”

“Asshole,” Jesse shrieked as Nick pulled out a handful of his hair. “Seiji, do you want your stupid boyfriend?”

“Not particularly.”

“Under no circumstances should you give Seiji a baby,” Eugene said. “He always drops them.”

Jesse shoved Nick out of his arms in Seiji’s general direction. Seiji didn’t even uncross his own to try and catch Nick, and they all watched him sink.

“Told you,” Eugene remarked.

“I believed you.”

Eugene laughed appreciatively, a hand clapping against Jesse’s shoulder.

“Alright,” he said, grip tightening there. “Buck up, cowboy. Incoming!”

Jesse gasped as Eugene all but flung himself at him—even in the water, Jesse stumbled a few steps to regain his footing after Eugene’s gravity threw off his equilibrium.

“But I _just_ had a baby,” he insisted, trying to gather Eugene into his arms. He didn’t really fit, but he did float well enough.

Jesse couldn’t decide if the closeness was a benefit or a burden of this game. He could feel his heart pounding and was hyperaware of every point of contact between them. Eugene was floating ambiently in the water, eyes closed peacefully and seemingly unconcerned with Jesse’s touch. Jesse’s eyes trailed down his neck, to the chest that protruded slightly from the water and the abs that glistened under it. He—

“Damn, you’re right, you _did_ just have a baby. And then you killed it. But my vengeful spirit won’t be contained to the underworld!”

Jesse tried to pedal away from Nick, but he launched at them and caught hold, scrambling around to climb on Jesse’s back.

“Nick, you asshole! You’re going to—!”

They went under.

Jesse broke apart from the others and surged for the surface, gasping in a breath when he broke into air.

“Nicholas Cox! I am going to—!”

Jesse gasped again as his legs were swept from under him and he was suddenly being pressed into something solid. Jesse flailed and planted a hand to push himself away, only to realize _what_ he was being held against. He dropped his hand from Eugene’s chest with mortification.

“I think I just saved you from getting sent back to the underworld, Nickster,” Eugene said. Jesse could feel the rumble of his laugh. He wanted to press further into it, wanted to feel more of it. He held himself very still.

“Maybe. Hey, pass him here, I’m open.”

“In a minute,” Eugene said, gently propelling them through the water. “Gotta keep you on your toes.”

Jesse was on his toes, waiting to be dropped or thrown or otherwise find himself underwater again. But when Eugene and Nick started talking about some dumb TV show they liked, Jesse relaxed a little. He closed his eyes and floated in Eugene’s arms, the water lapping against his face and brushing through his hair as they moved in wide, slow circles. It was nice. Peaceful. Better than lounging on pool floats or tanning in the sun. Better because Eugene’s arms held him softly, keeping him near, and his voice found Jesse’s ears in nonsense rumbles through the water that were pleasant to listen to.

Arms tightened around Jesse, and he was yanked from the water with an unceremonious yelp. The air felt cold on his skin and he tried to grab for something to cling to against his sudden new trajectory, but it was too late.

“Put me down!” he called. Eugene laughed into his stomach. He felt like a weight being curled, the way Eugene had lifted him high out of the water above his shoulders. “Wait—!”

It occurred to Jesse what being ‘put down’ meant right as Eugene dropped him, letting him plummet back into the pool. But he was caught again once there. Eugene didn’t let him go under. Jesse made to grab for his shoulders. He didn’t have the chance, he was already moving again, this time skimming over the water. Nick caught him, both him and Eugene laughing.

“He threw me with that move last time,” Nick told him. “I bowled over Seiji.”

“And nearly broke my nose,” Seiji recalled.

“It was only a little blood,” Eugene dismissed, but Nick leaned over to kiss Seiji’s nose. Jesse made a very loud gagging noise

“Ugh. Drown me,” he requested. It would be a more merciful fate than this.

“Aw, give him here,” Eugene said, “you’re traumatizing him.”

“And let you stall the game for another ten minutes?” Nick snorted. And, for once, listened to Jesse, dunking him under the water as per his request.

Jesse rolled from Nick’s grip and dove deeper into the water, coming up a safe distance from his brother. He could get so mushy with Seiji, it was nasty.

Eugene gave him a sympathetic shrug.

Despite Nick’s concerns over stalling the game, they seemed to be done with it for the day. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and splashing and talking—and reminding Nick and Seiji that they weren’t alone in the pool. He expected this sort of uncouth behavior from Nick, but Seiji could be too tolerant with him. Jesse even caught him letting Nick sneak a kiss.

“You two are disgusting,” Jesse complained. He couldn’t take any more of it.

“Allow me,” Eugene said, scooping a huge wall of water at the two in question. That broke them apart, but not for long; Nick reattached himself to Seiji at once. But at least they were done kissing.

“My hero,” Jesse said to Eugene.

“Just doing my part to keep the pool sanitary for everyone.”

“Gross,” Nick said.

“Yes, that’s what I was just saying,” Jesse agreed. He was glad to see that Seiji was blushing. _Good._ He and Nick should both feel ashamed for being so goopy nonstop.

“Nicholas, what’s the time?” Seiji asked.

“Uh,” Nick glanced down at his tacky waterproof watch, “almost three. Did you say you had fencing—?”

“Three-thirty,” Seiji finished.

“Convenient, don’t you think?” Jesse asked Eugene.

“Definitely. Bet you they’re just sneaking off to go make out somewhere without our rude interruptions.”

Seiji climbed out of the pool with a disgusted look at the both of them.

“I don’t joke about fencing,” he told them as he wrapped a towel neatly around his middle and strode to the shallow steps up to the house.

“He doesn’t joke about anything,” Jesse muttered. Nick splashed him before kicking out of the pool too.

“If our band of merry men is dispersing, I’ll go grab a shower too,” Eugene said, hauling himself onto dry land as well. Jesse admired the movement of muscles and shoulder blades under Eugene’s skin, then started to make his way to the edge he’d just watched Eugene climb up onto.

“A little over-anxious there, Jesse,” Nick said. “You going to follow Eugene right into the shower?”

“Who said I was getting out?” Jesse snapped.

“You’re not?” Eugene asked. Jesse refused to look at him.

“No. I’m going to relax now that I’ve got the pool to myself.”

To prove it, Jesse fell back and spread his arms to float in the water, which lapped at his ears and kept them from picking up on anything Nick or Eugene might have said. When he peeked an eye open after a safe amount of time had elapsed, he really was alone.

Opening his eyes to stare at the blue sky, Jesse stayed put in the peaceful water for a long time before wading back to the edge.

“You getting out now?”

Jesse looked toward the voice. Eugene, coming back down the stairs.

“What does it matter to you? I don’t imagine you’re getting back in.”

Eugene, fresh out of the shower, was dressed again, hair still damp but not dripping the way Jesse’s was.

“I only wondered if you might come say bye to me.”

“Bye,” Jesse said, watching Eugene move aside a pile of unused towels to grab something. “Forget your wallet?”

“Something like that.” Eugene pocketed it. Jesse pulled himself out of the pool when Eugene turned to him again, making sure to look picture perfect as he did. Eugene’s mouth was shaped in a smile. That wasn’t saying much; Eugene’s neutral expression dipped toward a smile. But Jesse was sure that Eugene’s eyes swept over him as he climbed to his feet.

“Goodbye, Eugene,” Jesse said again, closer and quieter than before.

“Yeah. Bye, Jesse,” Eugene returned with a small but undeniable smile all for Jesse. “See you next time.”

“See you then.” _Then_ meaning whenever Nick invited Eugene over next. Thinking of Nick, Jesse looked up at the house. Eugene followed his gaze and his thoughts.

“Don’t let him bully you. Next time, just drag him right back under the water.”

“Is that what you’re meant to do with little brothers? Drown them? As long as they’re not the baby?”

Eugene laughed.

“You’ll get the hang of little brothers soon enough,” he assured Jesse, a hand reaching out to push Jesse’s sopping bangs out of his face. He hadn’t even realized they were _in_ his face. “Hell, you’re already most the way there.”

Jesse waited three heartbeats before Eugene’s hand dropped from his face. Those three beats of contact emboldened Jesse.

“You should come over again soon.”

“Yeah. I’d like to.”

“How does your Saturday look?”

“It looks good. I’ll aim for noon?”

“I’ll see you then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the art featured in this chapter [here](https://thestarminstrel.tumblr.com/post/642514566558957568/id-a-digital-drawing-of-eugene-and-jesse-eugene)!


	5. Chapter 5

Jesse spent the morning near the front door, just to be sure he’d be first to hear it. The sitting room behind the entry hall provided the perfect vantage for casual door watching. Nick looked at him strangely every time he passed through, but sitting rooms were meant for sitting, and Jesse was _sitting_ in it.

A knock at the door spurred him to his feet. He straightened out his shirt, gave his hair an extra flip for good luck, and went to answer the call.

“Hey,” Eugene said. Jesse’s heart tumbled in his chest to have that first greeting directed at him.

“Hey,” Jesse returned easily, falling back from the door so Eugene could come inside.

“Eugene!” Nick said, popping up to check on the visitor. Couldn’t he have kept to himself? “What’re you doing here? Did I invite you?”

“No,” Jesse scowled. _“I_ invited him.”

Nick completely ignored Jesse.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming over.” 

“Must have slipped my mind,” Eugene said a little slowly. Nick’s eyes narrowed on his friend, but he broke out a smile in the same second, grabbing Eugene around the shoulders and pulling him deeper into the house. Jesse bristled. Today, Eugene was _his_ guest. Nick had no business stealing him.

“I just got a new game, we should play it!”

“Sure,” Eugene agreed, looking over his shoulder. “Jesse?”

“I—yeah, sounds…fun.”

Playing video games with Nick wasn’t really what Jesse had had in mind—they did that _all the time_ —but there didn’t seem to be a real way out of it, so he trailed after Nick and Eugene, same as he had all summer.

And he sat on the couch a little apart from them too. As always, Eugene and Nick sat shoulder to shoulder, knocking into each other as they played their dumb game. Jesse was no good at video games. He didn’t even try today. It was some shooter nonsense and Jesse kept dying, but no one cared. Jesse didn’t want to play and the other two were too busy laughing and playing together to care much about what Jesse wanted or what he did.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” Jesse said after another dreadful demise to zombies.

“Yeah, food sounds good,” Nick said, pausing the game and hopping over the back of the couch. “Eugene?”

Jesse scowled at Nick asking _his_ guest if he wanted lunch. But Eugene probably wouldn’t have let Jesse convince him to go out without Nick to grab lunch, so it didn’t matter that Nick had spoken first. But it was the principle of the thing. So Jesse spent the meal in a bad mood that wasn’t helped by the way Eugene spent the meal talking to Nick.

“Can we watch a movie or something?” Jesse asked after lunch, glancing at the paused screen of the awful video game.

“Nah,” Nick said, “we’ve barely broken in the game!”

“Let’s do something we all want to,” Eugene offered with a glance at Jesse.

“I don’t feel like a movie,” Nick replied.

“Alright…pool?” The question was directed at Nick.

“I don’t want to swim today,” Jesse said. Just to be difficult. Eugene should have been asking _him._

“We could watch some TV up here?” Eugene suggested. Again, he asked Nick, not Jesse.

“Sure,” Nick agreed.

“Whatever,” Jesse muttered, throwing himself back down on the couch where he’d sat all day. Nick and Eugene picked out something to watch, hardly consulting Jesse at all before putting it on. And it was more of the same. Same as it had been all today, same as it had been all summer. Jesse was the third wheel here, the one tagging along on his brother’s playdates.

It was easy to slip away without notice.

His steps were soft up the stairs and he closed his door with care, but he stormed across his room and threw himself onto his bed with a vengeance.

Grabbing a pillow, Jesse curled on his side with a strangled, contained scream of frustration. What was the point of asking Eugene over if it wasn’t going to make any difference? Jesse could tell that it was all the same to Eugene, that any attention Eugene had spared for him these past weeks didn’t mean anything. In the end, he’d rather ‘chill with the bros’ than actually follow through with that supposed interest.

Jesse buried his face briefly into the pillow hugged to his chest, considering another scream. He decided against the indignity, pulling out his phone instead and finding something to occupy his mind.

“There you are.”

Jesse didn’t look up at the sound of the door or the sound of the voice

“Why don’t you come back downstairs?” Eugene asked from the door when Jesse didn’t respond.

“I’m busy,” Jesse said waspishly. Eugene snorted.

“Yeah, busy. I can see that.” The door shut, but Jesse could hear that Eugene was on _this_ side of it, even if he still refused to look. “Busy being a pouty little drama queen.”

“I am _not_ —what are you doing?” Jesse asked in alarm, turning his head over his shoulder to stare as Eugene _climbed onto his bed._ “Leave me alone!”

“Pouting,” Eugene said, close now to Jesse—startlingly close, “is something I know how to fix.”

An arm looped over Jesse’s middle, finding the divot of his waist and settling there, fingers splaying against his chest and pressing him in near. Jesse was forced to untwist and fall back into his pillow.

“Leave me alone,” he repeated. He’d meant to snap the words, but they came out as a sullen whisper this time.

“You were in such a good mood this morning, I can’t just leave you to wallowing in your bad one now.”

“Do you snuggle all your friends when they’re in a bad mood?”

“Nope,” Eugene said brightly. “Just the cute ones.”

Jesse buried his face into his pillow, hugging it against him over the arm that hugged him, in turn, against Eugene. A soft rush of air past his ear followed by a light brush of lips to the tip of it made Jesse think that they’d gone incredibly red and Eugene had noticed. He couldn’t very well hide both his ears in the pillow along with his burning face.

_Just the cute ones._

_“I_ invited you here today,” Jesse mumbled into his pillow.

“I know. I came.”

“And you’ve spent the whole day playing with my stupid little brother.”

“Which would be more fun if you’d stop sulking and come hang with us.”

“I don’t want to. Go back to Nick, you obviously have more fun spending time with him than me, anyway.”

“How long have you been up here?”

“What?”

“An hour? Two hours? _Three?_ The whole afternoon?”

“What—no. You know I only just left a bit ago.”

“I do know that,” Eugene agreed. “I noticed your sulky ass wasn’t on the couch anymore the moment you left. And you know what? I _still_ came to get it back down there, even though you’re being a grump because Nick won’t leave us alone.”

Jesse considered that. It was true Eugene hadn’t wasted _that_ much time in coming after him.

“What do you mean,” Jesse asked, mind landing on the last of that sentence, _“Nick won’t leave us alone_?”

“Caught that, did you? I mean that Nick told me in no uncertain terms to keep my hands to myself with you months ago.”

“Why?” Jesse asked, twisting again to look over his shoulder, trying to catch a good glimpse of Eugene’s face. “Nick doesn’t care what I do.”

“He doesn’t want to get caught in the middle of it if things go south with us.” Eugene said it with such nonchalance, Jesse couldn’t help the tick of irritation he felt at the apparent lack of concern over the idea.

“You’re in my bed,” Jesse reminded him, “snuggling me because I’m cute. _And_ you just kissed my ear; I felt it.”

“I just can’t keep my hands to myself with you. Nick is gonna be pissed.”

“Why?”

“I just told you—,”

“I meant,” Jesse clarified, dropping his phone and abandoning his pillow as he turned over to face Eugene, planting both hands on his chest, palms flat. Waiting. “What are you going to do that will piss him off? A hug is harmless enough.”

Eugene’s fingers brushed into Jesse’s hair and another light touch of lips landed against Jesse’s ear, this time set near the lobe.

“Plenty,” Eugene assured him, words shivering pleasantly through Jesse. “But as long as things don’t go south, I figure we don’t have a real problem.”

“Then don’t let them go south.”

“I’ll need help,” Eugene said, these words trailing into a kiss at Jesse’s jaw. Jesse’s fingers curled into the front of Eugene’s shirt.

“Okay,” Jesse breathed. “I’ll help make sure you don’t fuck it up.”

“Me?” Eugene asked. “Who’s the one with the brattitude here?”

“You like it,” Jesse said, assured but soft.

“Do I?”

“Yes. Do I need to remind you again that you’re in my bed? And I did very little to get you here.”

Fingers traced Jesse’s jaw lightly.

“Very little,” Eugene repeated, “besides pitching fits. And being cute.”

A kiss landed between Jesse’s eyebrows. He tried to keep them furrowed in displeasure, but the kiss was effective.

“Is that all I am?” Jesse asked. “Cute and bratty?”

“You’re the one that just said I like it,” Eugene laughed, kissing again at Jesse’s brow. “And I do,” Eugene assured, trailing kisses down the bridge of Jesse’s nose, kissing the tip before readjusting, forehead bumping into Jesse’s in an intentional and affectionate way that made Jesse’s fingers tighten of their own accord. “But, really, I just like you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I like you too.”

“I know,” Eugene said, pressing a thumb lightly against Jesse’s lip and stopping him from telling Eugene exactly what he thought of that response. “At first, I thought you were just looking for some fun. Playing hot and cold with me, you know?” Jesse shook his head minutely, but Eugene wasn’t really looking for an answer. “But you always just…hung around. That’s what clued me in. I mean, _the_ Jesse Coste hanging out with his little brother’s friend all the time and never actually making a move? Just to spend time with us—with me? Yeah, that gave you away more than your pretty blushes and clothes.”

Eugene’s thumb still rested at Jesse’s lips, but his touch was so light, it wasn’t hard to speak quietly beneath it.

“And you?”

“I wouldn’t have said no to some fun,” Eugene admitted, dragging his thumb across Jesse’s bottom lip and settling at the corner. “But I liked hanging out with you. Didn’t take long for me to get a little too comfortable with you being around. I started noticing when you took a minute to show up. Missed you, I guess.”

“You say you missed me, and yet when I invite you over, you say hi to me at the door and then leave me behind to run off and shoot zombies with Nick.”

“He’s my best friend, what do you expect? I can’t just tell him to fuck off. But, man, I kind of assumed you’d invite me over on a day you knew Nick’d be out of the house or something.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Jesse said, surprised at himself for missing such an obvious precaution.

“Will I be missing you on future visits?” Eugene asked.

“No,” Jesse promised, eyelids fluttering shut as Eugene’s thumb left his mouth, the soft pressure of warm lips replacing it, brushing over the same corner of his mouth. Jesse’s heart thudded an embarrassingly off-kilter beat at the tiny taste of a kiss. Eugene kissed against his bottom lip next, exerting a soft care in the touch that parted Jesse’s lips right away, though Eugene persisted only in kissing that one lip.

“You’re so…” Eugene said, breath warm against Jesse’s mouth as he pulled away to speak, fingertips finding the bow of Jesse’s top lip to map out with his touch. “Perfect.”

At the word, Jesse’s patience ran out. He needed Eugene to kiss him and he needed it now. Without really processing his plan, Jesse shoved at Eugene, hands on his chest pushing him into the mattress flat on his back as Jesse’s momentum carried him upright. Swinging a leg over Eugene’s hips, Jesse fell heavy into place astride Eugene, straddling him and straightening up as soon as he was seated. Jesse pulled his hands from Eugene’s shirt to find the hem of his own and pull it upward and over his head, discarding it sightlessly to his bed or the floor or his chandelier for all he knew.

It all happened in the span of seconds, and when Jesse looked at Eugene, he found wide eyes and hiked eyebrows. He smirked, satisfied at the way those eyes took him in appreciatively. Hands grasped Jesse’s hips, steadying him. 

“Shameless, aren’t you? All your stupid rash guards at the pool and you just shucked that thing off you without a care in the world.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not at all. But, you know, I seem to remember that the first time you saw me shirtless, you called me a ham. Should I call _you_ disgusting now?” Eugene wondered absently. “It’s only fair.”

But he wasn’t considering calling Jesse any such thing, not really. Not even in jest. Jesse was sure of it by the fingers trailing over hipbones and up stomach, over ribs and down sides, memorizing the shape of Jesse’s body and tracking the muscle, subtle but evident without any obstructions of cloth, that corded under skin. There was no question about exactly what Eugene thought Jesse was.

_Perfect._

“I don’t think you look like a ham,” Jesse confessed, leaning forward to plant hands on Eugene’s chest again. Eugene’s right hand was a mirror to Jesse’s, both pressed over hearts.

‘Thanks,” Eugene said with a bark of surprised laughter. “But I knew that already, you pain in the ass. The lady doth protest too much and all that.”

“Oh? If you know so much about me and the workings of my mind, tell me: why aren’t you giving me what I want right now?” Jesse punctuated the question with a teasing lean forward, pressing his chest against Eugene’s hand and lightly flexing his legs against Eugene’s hips, but not coming in near enough for a kiss.

It was impossible to say whether the flash in Eugene’s eyes, the growl in his throat, or the sudden urgency to his hold as he grabbed Jesse’s middle came first. It didn’t matter; Jesse knew his provocation had spurred exactly what he’d wanted.

“Ah—!” Jesse gasped in surprise when he found himself being flung when he’d expected to be pulled.

The world was a rush of blurred colors and whooshing air and swooping stomach. It lasted less than a second and Jesse gaped up at Eugene from his cushiony landing in his comforter. Jesse meant to say something. He wasn’t sure what, but he knew his mouth was open, poised to speak, when Eugene’s barreled into it, taking whatever words Jesse might have said directly from his tongue. Jesse settled for a pleased noise in place of whatever protest or quip he might have had in mind before Eugene distracted him.

Eugene dragged Jesse’s hips against him as he kissed him into the mattress and Jesse got the message, relieving Eugene of the effort by squeezing his thighs closed low against Eugene’s hips in this new configuration. Newly freed up, Eugene’s palm slid along the shape of Jesse’s thigh, then traced along hipbone and pressed flat over navel. That hand felt so big, so wide and broad splayed over Jesse’s body, rubbing up stomach now, and then to his side, fingers curling to the slope of Jesse’s ribcage.

The careful exploration of Eugene’s hand with the insistent press of his mouth made Jesse feel at once treasured and devoured and entirely desperate for more of Eugene.

It wasn’t until he made his hands unfurl from bunches of shirt on Eugene’s chest that Jesse realized he’d grabbed on tight during his topple backward. He retrieved his hands now to slip to Eugene’s back, up his shirt, against warm, wonderful skin and shifting muscles.

He liked to track the movement of Eugene’s hands with the readjustment of his shoulder blades. He liked the hand burying into his hair. He liked the teeth teasing at his lip. He liked the murmured words lost to his mouth or neck before ever reaching his ears. Snatches of … _pretty…_ and _I’m going to…_ and … _irresistible…_ were enough to convince Jesse that Eugene was only saying things Jesse would be happy to hear if he could think clearly enough to hear anything.

Eugene’s hand traced patterns over Jesse’s ribs and up his chest, making him want to whine for more. Eugene picked up on his want, kissing him harder to sate him. Again, Jesse clung to Eugene without meaning to, fingers dragging harshly down his back, pressing him desperately down and closer into Jesse—

“For the love of fuck,” a voice boomed at the door, followed closely by a groan of frustration and disgust. “Come _on_ , you guys, you have got to be fucking kidding me, that’s so gross.”

“Says the one who walked in without knocking, probably after realizing we’d both gone missing,” Jesse said, craning his head into the mattress to look upside down across his room to the door and the brother standing in it.

“I was hoping I could stop it,” Nick said, one hand over his eyes and the other out in front of him as if warding off some great force of evil. “Now that you guys are dating, I’m never going to hear the end of it!”

“Not true,” Eugene said. Jesse’s stomach dropped but not in a good way. They’d never officially decided to date. “You won’t hear _or_ see the end of it.”

“It’s what you deserve,” Jesse agreed, hiding his relief, “for how mushy you are with your boyfriend all the time.”

“Yeah,” Eugene said. The way he was smiling at Jesse made him suspect his relief hadn’t been as well hidden as he’d intended. But Jesse didn’t mind, not when it made Eugene press another butterfly-soft kiss to his lips, speaking the next words to him. “I plan to be disgustingly happy with my boyfriend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the art featured in this chapter [here](https://thestarminstrel.tumblr.com/post/643176695202021376/id-a-digital-drawing-of-eugene-jesse-and)!
> 
> Well, folks, here we are at the chapter that _actually_ fills the prompt (Jesse pouting and throwing a fit over something stupid, and Eugene having to soothe his ego with plenty of kisses and snuggles). It just took us a minute to get here, but aren't we all the luckiest to have Nik's brilliant art every step of the way? (I know I sure feel spoiled by it lmao)  
> I hope we did your prompt justice, Tris, and thank you again for putting on Secret Santa 2020! <3
> 
> Thank you all for reading, it's been a blast! 💜


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